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585 Syllabus POLS 585: International Security Spring 2012 Prof. Kyle Beardsley Office Hours: Thursdays 2:30-4:00 & by appointment Overview This is one of two graduate courses on international conflict and security. It is not a prerequisite for the other course (POLS 512), nor does it assume that you have taken that course. It does assume that you have taken World Politics (POLS 510) or an equivalent course at another institution. While some in the field might make a distinction between the study of security studies (usually a normative focus with strong policy implications) and conflict processes or peace science (usually a positive focus with reliance on game theory and quantitative analysis), the division of topics between the two courses (512 and 585) is based more on instructor strengths than any meaningful divides. We will spend much of this course studying emerging research related to intrastate conflict, but will also touch on a number of other relevant topics to the subfield of international conflict and security. There are three requirements for this course: Class Participation (20%) The course will rely heavily on class discussion, so each student is expected to come to class with all the required reading completed. The recommended readings are exactly that, but note that serious students of international politics who do not do any of the recommended reading or related outside reading will be doing themselves a tremendous disservice in preparation for the final paper, comprehensive exams and research beyond. Each week, a student will present on the readings from the week. The presenter should speak for 10-15 minutes on the overall context and contribution of the readings. There should be two components of the discussion. First, the presenters should relate the week’s readings to each other. How do they agree? How do they differ? How do they build on each other? Do some of the readings touch on completely different topics? Second, the presenters should discuss how these readings fit into the broader literature. Using the literature reviews in the assigned readings, what are the major pieces of the literature on which these pieces build? What are the major pieces of the literature that these readings call into question? Also, doing a search of the major political science journals and reading the abstracts, what are some of the important pieces of the literature that were either contemporaries of the assigned reading or came after? The purpose of this exercise is to gain experience in doing literature reviews and to introduce the class to major pieces of the literature that we do not have time to discuss in depth. Short Response Papers (30% total) During the weeks in which the students do not present, they are required to write a 2-3 page (double spaced) critique of one of the readings for that week. The students should first identify the question being addressed and the core argument. They will then briefly give an overall assessment of the reading, in terms of its general strengths and weaknesses. The bulk of the paper will be devoted to providing recommendations to make the research stronger. What are the key shortcomings, and how might one address them? The exercise is meant to strengthen the student’s ability to not just poke holes in an argument but to be able to critically think about addressing the problems that arise. The students should try to avoid “low hanging fruit” such as mere recommendations for control variables and instead focus on bigger issues related to theoretical development and research design. Research Paper (50%) At the end of the semester, students will turn in a research paper between 30 and 40 pages in length (double spaced, including the bibliography). The paper must address a theoretical question, make a contribution to the literature, provide a coherent argument, evaluate in depth an historical case and provide the sketch for a research design. On February 8, students will turn in an abstract of their paper topic and research question, including an overview of the research contribution. On March 21, students will turn in an annotated bibliography that includes the full citation and 1-2 sentences of summary of the works relevant to the research project. This will be approximately six pages in length. The final paper is due on May 9, by 5:00pm. Schedule Most of the required readings are available on DiscoverE, EUCLID, Google Scholar or JSTOR. The book chapters and shorter book excerpts can be found on Reserves Direct through EUCLID. 1/18: Introduction to Intrastate Conflict Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, “Greed and Grievance in Civil War,” Oxford Economic Papers 56 (2004): 563-595. Stathis Kalyvas ad Laia Balcells, “International System and Technologies of Rebellion: How the End of the Cold War Shaped Internal Conflict,” American Political Science Review 104 (August 2010): 415-429. Macartan Humphries and Jeremy M. Weinstein, “Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War,” American Journal of Political Science 52 (April 2008), 436-455. Recommended: James D. Fearon and David P. Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil Wars,” American Political Science Review 97 (February 2003): 75-90. Ted Robert Gurr, Why Men Rebel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 3-58. 1/25: Civil War Onset Havard Hegre and Nicholas Sambanis, “Sensitivity Analysis of Empirical Results on Civil War Onset,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 50 (August 2006): 508-535. 2 Havard Hegre, Tanja Ellingsen, Scott Gates, and Nils Petter Gleditsch, “Towards a Democratic Civil Peace? Democracy, Political Change, and Civil War, 1816- 1992,” American Political Science Review 95 (March 2001): 33-48. Barbara Walter, “Building Reputation: Why Governments Fight Some Separatists but Not Others,” American Journal of Political Science 50 (April 2006): 313-330. Havard Hegre, Gudrun Ostby and Clionadh Raleigh, “Poverty and Civil War Events: A Disaggregated Study of Liberia,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (August 2009): 598-623. Halvard Buhaug, “Climate Not to Blame for African Civil Wars,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (September 21, 2010): 16477-16482. 2/1: Ethnic Conflict Lars-Erik Cederman, Halvard Buhaug and Jan Ketil Rød, “Ethno-Nationalist Dyads and Civil War,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (August 2009): 496-525. Lars-Erik Cederman, Nils B. Weidmann and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, “Horizontal Inequalities and Ethnonationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison, American Political Science Review 105 (August 2011): 478-495. James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys, Daniel N. Posner and Jeremy M. Weinstein, “Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?” American Political Science Review 101 (November 2007): 709-725. James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, “Explaining Interethnic Cooperation,” American Political Science Review 90 (December 1996): 715-735. Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, “Divide and Conquer or Divide and Concede: How do States Respond to Internally Divided Separatists?” American Political Science Review 105 (May 2011): 275-297. Recommended: David A. Lake and Donald Rothchild, “Containing Fear: The Origins and Management of Ethnic Conflict,” International Security 21 (Fall 1996): 41-75. Halvard Buhaug, Lars-Erik Cederman and Jan Ketil Rød, “Disaggregating Ethno- Nationalist Civil Wars: A Dyadic Test of Exclusion Theory,” International Organization 62 (2008): 531-551. Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Berkeley, CA: California University Press, 1985), 3-288; 443-559. Stuart J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War (Ithaca: Cornell, 2001). 3 Monica Duffy Toft, Geography and Ethnic Violence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 1-44. Rui J. P. De Figueiredo and Barry R. Weingast, “The Rationality of Fear: Political Opportunism and Ethnic Conflict,” in Barbara F. Walter and Jack Snyder (eds.), Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999): 261-302. Barry Posen, “The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict,” Survival vol. 35 no. 1 (1993): 27-47. V. P. Gagnon, Jr., “Ethnic Nationalism and International Conflict: The Case of Serbia,” International Security 19 (Winter 1994/95): 130-166. 2/8: Civil War Termination Abstract of paper topic due Halvard Buhaug, Scott Gates and Päivi Lujala, “Geography, Rebel Capability, and the Duration of Civil Conflict,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (August 2009): 544-569. David Cunningham, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch and Idean Salehyan, “It Takes Two: A Dyadic Analysis of Civil War Duration and Outcome,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (August 2009): 570-597. Thomas Chapman and Philip G. Roeder, “Partition as a Solution to Wars of Nationalism: The Importance of Institutions,” American Political Science Review 101 (November 2007): 677-692. David E. Cunningham, “Veto Players and Civil War Duration,” American Journal of Political Science 50 (October 2006): 875-892. James D. Fearon, “Why Do Some Civil Wars Last So Much Longer than Others?” Journal of Peace Research 41 (May 2004): 275-301. Recommended: Nicholas Sambanis, “Partition as a Solution to Ethnic War: An Empirical Critique of the Theoretical Literature,” World Politics 52 (July 2000): 437-483. Patrick M. Regan, “Third-Party Intervention and the Duration of Intrastate Conflicts,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (February 2002): 55-73. Daniel Byman, “Forever Enemies? The Manipulation of Ethnic Identities to End Ethnic Wars,” Security Studies 9 (Spring 2000): 149-190. 2/15: Transnational Dynamics of Intrastate Conflict 4 Idean Salehyan and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, “Refugees and the Spread of Civil War,” International Organization 60 (Spring 2006): 335-366. Lars-Erik Cederman, Luc Girardin and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, “Ethnonationalist Triads: Assessing the Influence of Kin Groups on Civil Wars,” World Politics 61 (July 2009): 403-37. Halvard Buhaug and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, “Contagion or Confusion? Why Conflicts Cluster in Space,” International Studies Quarterly 52 (June 2008): 215- 233. Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Idean Salehyan and Kenneth Schultz, “Fighting at Home, Fighting Abroad: How Civil Wars Lead to International Disputes,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 52 (August 2008): 479-506.
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